Monday, November 26, 2012

Christmas Tree

I decided a few years ago that our Christmas tradition would be to make a new Christmas tree each year. I like our tree to be a little out of the ordinary, and for the last two years I have tried to introduce a little bit of Australia into our tree. There's not a whole lot of Australia in this years tree, although it is Australian made. That must count, right?

This year, our tree is MDF painted with blackboard paint. That way, the kids can decorate it over and over and over again. I sketched the tree shape onto the MDF then gave the husband "creative licence" with the jigsaw. I think it turned out well!

 

Last years Christmas tree

Last year, we had an abundance of branches out the back. I asked the lawnmower man to leave them there months in advance. I know he thought I was weird. But, I did end up with, what I felt was, the perfect branch.

I sewed the leaves out of the same fabric I used in the advent calendar and stuffed them.

Each day, we took a decoration out of the advent calendar and hung it on the tree. The end result was a nice, crowded tree!

Christmas tree 2010

Christmas 2010 was the first year we really did a tree. Amaali was 2 and old enough to start participating in Christmas. Ashar was a newborn and thankfully slept long enough to allow me to finish this tree. We had some big sheets of cardboard so I traced and cut a tree, glued some branches on it and sprayed it brown. A few days before I made the tree, we had some wild weather and there were eucalyptus leaves all over the ground. So, I collected them up and used them for the tree!

 

Christmas Advent Calendar

I never seem to be able to commit to keeping up with blogging. But, just for fun, I'm going to summarise Christmas at my house so far.

This years advent calendar

Our advent calendar this year is courtesy of bunnings and dulux! I used a star hole punch to make the starts out of swatches. There is an "experience" on the back of each tree. Some of our planned experiences are driving to look at lights, going out for ice cream, making play dough. Lots of simple things so I can keep up!

 

Last years advent calendar

A little trip down memory lane. Last year, I used toilet rolls coved in fabric. Inside each roll was a small decoration for the tree. So, it started off bare but was looking pretty good Christmas Day.